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Mondragon Bookstore
The Mondragon Bookstore & Coffeehouse is a political bookstore and vegan cafe located in The Old Market Autonomous Zone at 91 Albert Street in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The name comes from the Mondragón Cooperative Corporation and other organisations in the Basque town of Mondragón Spain that is known for its extensive network of worker's cooperatives. Mondragon is organized as a workers' collective: there is no hierarchy and all workers receive the same wage rate. This is based on the economic structure, Parecon developed by Robin Hahnel and Michael Albert. Mondragon Bookstore Mondragon Bookstore carries books related to anarchism, ecology, indigenous issues and resistance, Marxism, feminism, human and animal liberation, queer issues, sexuality, health, vegetarianism, economics, labour, media, activism and social change. Mondragon also carries zines, alternative children's books, political posters and t-shirts. Vegan Restaurant Mondragon also operates a full vegan restaurant, coffee house, and catering company. Non-Hierarchical Worker-Run Collective Mondragon's internal structure, inspired by the participatory economic model, is part of a long tradition of workers' collectives. It aspires to complete non-hierarchy: there are no owners or managers other than the workers themselves. One of the co-founders of the workplace presented a paper at the World Social Forum in Brazil on the practical difficulties of applying parecon principles to a workplace in the midst of capitalismPaul Burrows, "ParEcon in Theory and Practice: Work After Capitalism Panel Discussion". Some commentators have also noted that regardless of the egalitarian workplace structure, in the final analysis, retail work is still largely menial, and turn-over rates are comparable to more corporate counterpartsDavid Leibel, “Café Resistance,” This Magazine (July-August 2002). Political events Mondragon has also been a venue for social and political events since opening its doors in 1996. A partial list of activists and speakers who have given talks or participated on panels at Mondragon over the years includes: Anarchists * Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin * Jaggi Singh * L. Susan Brown * Brian Dominick of The NewStandard * Propagandhi's Chris Hannah * Ann Hansen * Norman Nawrocki of Rhythm Activism. Others * Michael Albert * Naomi Klein * Ward Churchill * Dacajewah "Splitting the Sky" Hill * various members of the Industrial Workers of the World * Native Youth Movement activists * members of the Brazilian Landless Workers' Movement * No One is Illegal * Zapatista Army of National Liberation and Palestinian solidarity activists * members of OCAP * prison abolitionist Ruth Morris * Christian Parenti * Alexander Cockburn History * Mondragon was co-founded by Winnipeg activists Paul Burrows and Sandra Drosdowech, and opened its doors on July 15, 1996 with an initial collective of ten members[http://themanitoban.com/2001-2002/0912/features_4.shtml ParEcon collective celebrates anniversary, The Manitoban, 12 September 2001]. * Many of Mondragon's past collective members have gone on to help start other activist projects, or join existing ones, such as Winnipeg-based groups like Natural Cycle, G7 Welcoming Committee Records, Arbeiter Ring Publishing, Organic Planet Worker Co-op, Dada World Data (DWD), as well as AK Press and Seven Stories Press http://a-zone.org/history. References External links *Mondragon Bookstore and Coffeehouse *ParEcon in Theory and Practice “Work After Capitalism” Panel Discussion - Paul Burrows outlining how ParEcon was implemented at the Mondragon Bookstore & Coffeehouse Category:Bookstores of Canada Category:Independent bookstores Category:Culture of Winnipeg Category:Canadian cooperatives Category:Industrial Workers of the World Category:Worker cooperatives